to ratchet up
18
6.7
- phrasal verb
:
aumentar gradualmente
- We have to find a way to ratchet this up and still have him in some condition to fight.
- ratchet up pressure
- ratchet up their fundraising
AI bias, which seems to be ratcheting up real fast.
- AI bias, which seems to be ratcheting up real fast.
- You can bring me in here as a tool, let's say, to ratchet yourself up the status hierarchy.
- And then the third way, which particularly California, Illinois and New Jersey are notorious for is ratcheting up the benefits.
- And when they lose that control, they panic and they ratchet up all of their control efforts to try to regain that.
- So why not just continue ratcheting up the scene features?
- And so it's kind of a tangent to your question, but the question is, is, is it always about ratcheting up the next thing?
- Like the more the haves get and the and the less that the have nots are are, you know, have access to it's only going to ratchet this whole thing up.
Examples
-
The Obama administration has continued to ratchet up pressure on Islamabad.
Academic text (2012) -
Why, after thirty years of hostility, has the US ratcheted up its rhetoric?
Blog text (21) -
We're seeing it ratchet up right now because of that.
-
So why not just continue ratcheting up the scene features?
-
Do you honestly believe that this whole issue has ratcheted up the hate even more?
Blog text (9) -
For all practical purposes, the U.S. drug war is still going strong and is even being dangerously ratcheted up in Central America.
Academic text (2012) -
Ever since the Muslim Brotherhood gained control of the Egyptian government, they have ratcheted up the anti-American rhetoric.
Blog text (30) -
Similarly, as U.S. policymakers ratchet up pressure on Tehran over Iran's nuclear program, they are considering crimping Iran's crude oil exports.
Academic text (2011) -
The government decided to ratchet up funding for public health initiatives to combat the crisis.
-
As tensions rose, both sides began to ratchet up their military presence along the border.
Synonyms
220
5.5
To become larger, more serious, or more intense
207
3.0
Increase slowly over time
110
4.0
Make something stronger or more intense
76
4.1
To make a feeling, effect or situation stronger
74
3.4
Make something greater in amount, speed or strength
57
3.4
To become more intense or make a situation more intense
57
4.5
To increase something gradually in stages
47
4.1
To increase something, especially its amount or speed
39
3.9
To make prices rise to a higher level, often quickly
34
6.9
To move something a little at a time so it cannot move back
26
4.2
Make a situation more urgent to force someone to act
23
3.4
To raise prices or amounts by a lot
9
3.9
Increase the size or amount of something so it still works well
9
6.5
To increase something a lot, often efforts or strength
1
3.9
To try to make someone change what they do by making them feel more stress
1
4.6
To make something faster or more active
To work much harder and faster to get something done
Antonyms
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to increase or escalate gradually' is directly derivable from combining 'ratchet' (incremental one-way steps) with 'up' (to raise/increase); the mechanical-ratchet metaphor transparently maps onto gradual escalation. While slightly specialized imagery, the verb+particle composition is predictable, so a learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Ratchet up comes from a tool called a ratchet, a wheel with teeth that lets you tighten something a little at a time and stops it from moving back. So to ratchet up means to 'increase' something slowly and in a way that is hard to reverse.